Cleaning a room in your home can be time consuming and stressful. This stress is compounded when you’ve got a time crunch because friends or family are paying you a surprise visit. All of the things involved in cleaning, such as moving furniture, dusting, vacuuming, and mopping, can just seem overwhelming. Luckily, with a little forethought and some persistence, you’ll be able to clean a room in relatively little time.

Steps

Part 1

Making a Game Plan for Cleaning

1

Identify your goal in cleaning a room. Cleaning means different things to different people. You’re going to have to identify, first, exactly what you want to do. When deciding on your goal, think of the audience. Do you just want it to be clean for yourself, or for guests? Also, the level of “clean” will necessarily be restricted by the amount of time you devote, so keep that in mind. There are a few different possibilities:

You want the room to “look” clean to others. This might be the quickest option, as you'll just be creating the illusion of a clean and organized room. It might include just moving around clutter and wiping down furniture and be doable in under 30 minutes.

You want the room to be organized. This is a moderate option that could take up to an hour, depending on how much stuff is cluttering the room and needs to be put away.

You want the room to be organized and to be free of dirt, grime, and smells. This could take up to 2 hours, depending on a variety of factors.

There are also varying levels between the above options.

2

Set aside a certain amount of time. You’re going to have to set aside a certain amount of time to achieve your goal. One of the largest determinants of how much time you set aside will be your end goal. But before you come up with an amount of time, you need to ask yourself a few questions:

How much time do you have?

How large is the mess?

What is your definition of “quick”?

3

Prevent interruptions and motivate yourself. Take a few steps to make sure that you’re undisturbed so that you can devote all of your energy to cleaning. After all, you won’t be able to get much done if you’re constantly talking to people, answering the phone, or doing other activities. In addition, you can take a few steps to further motivate yourself. Consider the following:

Turn off your cell phone.

Turn off your computer.

Tell your parents, siblings, or roommates that you’re going to be busy for a little while.

Survey the landscape, quickly. Spend perhaps five minutes taking a look at the mess that you’re about to clean up. When doing this, you need to create a list, either mental or on paper, of the biggest obstacles to your cleaning. After doing this, you should be somewhat more prepared to jump right in. Consider the following.

Is clutter a major obstacle? Do you have knick-knacks, old toys, books, and electronics covering all of your surfaces?

Prioritize your tasks. If you've answered the above questions, then you can begin to prioritize your tasks. You'll know where to start, and where to spend the most time.

If you want to create the appearance of a clean room, spend your time moving or hiding clutter and wiping down furniture.

If you want a truly organized room, allocate time to organization rather than to things like dusting the fan.

If you want a clean and organized room and are crunched for time, consider devoting a third of your time to organization and the remaining two thirds to cleaning. If you're left with unorganized items, relocate them and tackle that problem later.

Part 2

Sorting the Mess

1

Clear the floor. Start off by clearing your floor of anything that shouldn’t be there. This way, you’ll start the process of sorting loose items, and getting rid of dirt and grim. After doing this, you should feel a sense of accomplishment and be well on the way to having a clean and more orderly room.

Take any loose clothes and shoes and make a pile on the floor. Chances are, these are already dirty. If they’re clean, relocate them to somewhere else.

Move out chairs and other small pieces of portable furniture into a neighboring room or hallway, this way, you’ll be able to vacuum easier when the time comes

Get a trash bag and throw any garbage or loose pieces of paper into it.

Make a “miscellaneous” pile on the floor, on a chair, or on a couch.[4]

2

Sort items on your furniture. Take a look at your desk, bookshelves, and other pieces of large furniture. Remove any items that don’t belong there, and put them in the appropriate pile (trash, miscellaneous, or clothing).

Organize your piles. Now you’ve got a clear floor and your furniture should be clear, too. Take the opportunity to start sorting through and organizing your three piles. Depending on how much time you have, and what your goals are, you can spend more time on this or spend less time on it.

If spending less time, find some hampers or garbage bags, and put your clothes and shoes in there – for later sorting (wink, wink).

If spending more time, go through your clothing pile, bring dirty clothes to the laundry room and hang up or fold clean clothes.

If spending less time, find some cardboard boxes and dump your misc. pile into them – relocate them to the garage or another room temporarily (wink, wink).

If spending more time, go through your misc. pile and put all the items in appropriate location. Books go on a book shelf, video games go next to the game system, DVDs go on a DVD rack or next to the DVD player.[6]

Part 3

Cleaning the Room

1

Clean surfaces of hard-to-remove dirt and grime. If you’ve got a kitchen table, TV trays, or a counter where you eat, or anything like that, you need to get a rag and some soap, depending on the surface, and wipe it clean. Most surfaces will clean with a wet rag, but sometimes you’ll need to bring in the big guns. But remember:

Use appropriate chemicals for appropriate surfaces. You don’t want to ruin hardwood furniture with abrasive chemicals.

Dust the room. Dusting will give your room a much cleaner appearance, and help improve the air quality. It is one of the most important elements of keeping a clean house. Depending on how much time you have, you can choose the extent in which you will dust. Consider:

Use microfiber towels when you can.

Dusting the surfaces of furniture, like desks, a TV stand, bookshelves, and more.

Vacuum the room, if you’ve got carpet or if you want to vacuum your tile/hardwood. Now that your surfaces are clean and better organized and your floor is clear, it’s time to vacuum. Vacuuming will help remove dirty, dust, and dog or cat hair from the room. It is an essential part of any clean. Most rooms can be vacuumed in under five minutes, if you’re in a hurry.

Start at the back of the room and systematically move toward the entrance.

Make sure to vacuum along the baseboards, behind and under couches and other furniture.

If you’re going to spend a little bit more time, try to vacuum over an area 3 or 4 times.[9]

4

Mop the room, if you’ve got tile or hardwood. Mopping is essential in removing dirty and grime from your floor, and all you need is some soap and a bucket. This is a must, so you won’t want to skip it. But, if you’re in a hurry, there are a few ways to save time:

If you want to save time, invest in a swifter or something similar.

Another way to save time is to get a wet soapy towel, and to walk around the room with it. This won’t be as effective as actual mopping, but you’ll be able to pick up a lot of dirt and grime and save time.

If mopping the old fashion way, make sure to sweep the floor first. Sweep from the back of the room toward the entrance, working systematically, and picking up your dirt/debris piles as you move toward the entrance.[10]

After sweeping, start mopping from the back of the room toward the front. Mop 3x3 or 4x4 foot sections and then rinse your mop with fresh water. Slowly and systematically move toward the entrance of the room.

5

Look around the room. After you've mopped, make sure to take a good look around the room and make some final adjustments if you need to. This is your chance to spend a couple minutes getting to the little things you might have neglected because you were in a hurry. Also, there are some finishing touches that will help your room look and smell clean:

Open the windows to let fresh air in.

Turn on the fan, this will help the floor dry and will spread the clean air from outside around your home.

Consider lighting a candle.

If you're confident in how clean the room is, open the blinds and let some more light in.

Community Q&A

What do I do if I'm getting overwhelmed by the amount of cleaning I need to do? It's a lot!

Mia Colangelo

Community Answer

Prioritize. Make a list of the things that need to be done, and rank them in order of importance. For example, washing your dirty bedsheets is higher priority than reorganizing your bookshelf. Start with a certain area or category of your room. Having only one thing to focus on makes it easier to accomplish each task. If you need motivation, try making a game out of it. Assign points to different tasks and see how many points you can accrue in 20 minutes.

Before you can clean a room fast, make sure to survey your room to make a game plan and prioritize what is most important. For example, if the biggest issue is dirty laundry on the floor, that is much quicker to pick up than scrubbing dirty floors or walls. Once you know what needs to be done, set aside a block of time to clean your room. Turn off your phone to avoid distractions, turn on some music that motivates you, and start cleaning. For more advice on making the most of your time while cleaning, scroll down!